Explaining teaching uses of Wikipedia through faculty personal and contextual features

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore which personal and contextual factors affect the use of Wikipedia as a teaching resource in higher education institutions. This research question is approached by investigating faculty perceptions and attitudes in two large Spanish universities. For this purpose, a comprehensive empirical study has been employed, based on an online survey to faculty members and the inclusion of a decision¿making model in the analysis. Data provide evidence that a combination of cultural, social and subjective factors influences the decision to use Wikipedia. This decision is not only associated with lecturers¿ individual characteristics, but mostly with surrounding influences. Teaching uses are more frequent when academics have close reference models and when they perceive that Wikipedia is being positively valued by their colleagues. The present study provides a creative framework to analyze the main determining factors of Wikipedia usage by faculty. The inclusion of both internal and external factors in the decision process has proved to be a valuable novelty. The study also detects the main factors affecting the negative or reluctant attitude towards Wikipedia and provides some recommendations to overcome these barriers. Finally, the research widens the scope of previous investigations supplying a new research framework and including, for the first time, a prominent online university in the analysis in order to discard the potential effects of digital and information illiteracy among students and faculty members.